Fathers
by ZeroGain
Summary: Jenna Carter embarks on her greatest journey: The chance to see her father, Nathan Stark, before he is erased from reality.  Will her willful violation the Wells Protocol on Time Travel destroy the future, and the people, she loves?   On hiatus
1. I Have To Know

**FATHERS**  
A Jenna Carter Story

**Chapter 1:**

_**A/N:** Spoiler Alert! This story deals heavily with the continuity of episode 3x04, "I Do Over". If you haven't watched that first, you should._

The beauty of a logic diamond was, Jenna Carter reflected, that they never faded. The unique crystalline matrix could store data forever, assuming you didn't break it. Older ones, like the one her father had made for her mom before she was born, couldn't contain nearly as much as the newer models with their hyper-condensed lattices, or the new compression methods, but that wasn't the point.

Back then they'd been hideously expensive, but from all she knew it had been just like him to get something this rare and special for the woman he'd loved, and eventually given his life for.

Nathan Stark. Father. Brilliance unchecked, a man who's hubris knew no bounds, and one of the finest scientists of his day.

Even today his name was legend to those in the know. The last independent head of Global Dynamics in the early 2000s, before the military had taken it over, before it had been bravely taken back by true scientists and visionaries. Talk of him engendered both cautionary tales of the necessity of principles and wild stories of the excesses mankind could achieve if only they'd look beyond ethics mired in pre-historic culture.

They still had a wing of Global Dynamics dedicated to him, but that, all of that, was not her memory.

Her mom had let her look at that diamond several times over the years. It was still treasured, still kept close to her, though not worn anymore. Jenna didn't play the message herself, anymore, but for a time in her early adolescence she had played every picosecond of that recording, again and again.

Today, she remembered every word:

_"Surprise!" he says, tenderly. He's wearing his wedding tuxedo, a white silk shirt and a custom white and cream tie. His eyes are serious and intense. She can see, if she looks closely enough, where she inherited some of her features. The high cheekbones, the intense blue eyes so rare with coffee colored skin._

_"I know what you're thinking," he continues with a jaunty demeanor, smirking a little, but it's self-effacing, not mean-spirited. "I can barely handle one Nathan, what am I going to do with two?"_

_"Well don't worry. All I've done is imprint a small part of myself onto this diamond, the way that you have imprinted yourself onto me."_

_"If marriage is about joining two people for eternity, then I wanted to be sure, that no matter where you are, or where I am, I will always be with you."_

_"I made mistakes the first time, Allie. I know that. But I promise you, this time_..._ this time is forever."_

_"Allie, I will always love you, and I will never, ever leave you again." He closes with the utmost sincerity, all the love he can muster in his blazing blue eyes._

Jenna knows why her mom loved him. She can see the strong assertiveness, the passion, the intensity. He's not so different from the man she calls "dad", though Jack Carter had quickly disabused her of any such notions the first time she mentioned it. Still, she knew from how he'd talked about Nathan Stark that, for all their shared animosity (mostly, she knew, over her mom, Allison), they had still respected each other. She'd got her dad to admit it once, even!

Silently she chided herself for her woolgathering. Such thoughts on the eve what would surely become her greatest achievement rewarded nothing.

So, she turned to the rest of her lab, a concern she'd been working on for years. A well organized space, filled with the apparatuses required to push the boundaries of science. It was never a question she'd make it at Global Dynamics, and she had earned it, even if he big brother Kevin Blake could have pulled the strings to ensure it regardless. Even with the crew at Jupiter, the former Director of Space Sciences still had some pull back home. But she was her mother's daughter, brilliance, incisiveness, knowledge and grace all rolled into one, and the sheer determination to see her goals through.

It was time to make the final adjustments, and her last log.

She turned to the video log camera and addressed the machine.

"Private Log: Jenna Carter, 9:37 p.m., December 17, 2032." she began, smiling for posterity.

"Happy birthday to me." she laughed, nervous excitement evident. "I've finally put it all together. The quantum displacement tracker, the universal clock, the string detangler, and the bridge, and it works. It works!" she almost danced in her seat.

"Last night I put this culture tray into detangler and synced up the clocks, setting the dilation for the wormhole to 9:15 p.m. _today_, and as predicted the culture dematerialized. I'm sure no one will believe this without actually witnessing it, but the truth is it _just_ rematerialized now thirteen minutes ago."

"I've put it through he full range of biological filter scans to compare and contrast the past data, and I'll be damned if the culture sample isn't perfectly healthy, growing at an unhindered rate, _and_ measurably only a few minutes older than it was when it disappeared!"

"I am now attaching all relevant test data to the log." She tapped a few keys on the virtual console appending notes and other logs. Nearby screens gave rapid fire previews, as did the virtual vision indicators in her retinal implants.

"On a personal note, I believe that I have finally found the anomaly. In all the years I've been researching these equations, I have never been closer. Well, after the sample rematerialized I applied the new data through displacement tracker, and it was what I needed to begin pinpointed specific elements in time!"

"The data stream is like nothing I've ever seen before. The elements here, here, and here are some of the more interesting ones. For example, you'll note a particularly large quantum entanglement event in 1947, tying it neatly with 2010. We have another one, seeming interlaced, perhaps buried, that connects 2010 and 2006, and _another_ one tying 2009 to 2006, _all_ centered on Eureka."

She frowned at the next bit. "The events in California tying '85, '55, and 2015 seem to be outliers, but I can't rule out another lab trying time travel. Whoever they were, they obviously achieved some success in the field."

"However, with all of these elements and data points, I have found the one that my dad let slip about a number of years ago. The theory's been formalized by Dr. Fargo a few years ago into, charmingly enough, the Groundhog Principle. Well with these new tools I can see no fewer than a half dozen, but only one such looping wave that appears to intersect with Eureka in 2008... the year I was conceived."

She sighed and took some time considering the next bit. "As we all know, the Wells Protocol* prohibits actual people traversing the time stream, and the tenants of the protocol are severe, to say the least. I have, however, decided to try it..."

She holds up a device so the camera can see it. "This handy little 'toy'" which looks like nothing so much as a Global Dynamics PDA from around the turn of the century with a few nonsensical bits attached to it, "is my locater and my manipulator. A compass and a map, all in one. I've managed to tie in everything from temporal dislocation to quantum particle entanglement, all using the Einstein Bridge Principle. I call it the baby bridge**, and it should allow me to open a wormhole to any point along this quantum reality's time stream, and allow me to set it's end location anywhere on the globe!"

She smiles happily, then sobers up, looking at the recorder seriously. "I know what I'm going to do is both foolish and ill considered, or so some of you would say. So here's my rebuttal in advance, my request for forgiveness and absolution instead of permission."

"Mom, I have to know. It's within my power to see him with my own eyes, to actually _talk_ to him! I love you so much. I've learned so much from you, but beyond all the science the greatest lesson you ever taught me was courage. In the face of insurmountable dangers you never lost hope, in the face of potential heartbreak, you never gave in."

"Dad, I love you too, you know I do. I've learned so much from you, but the most important lesson is love. He loved mom _so_ much, he deserves to at least know about me. And don't give me any of that 'he already knows' tripe, please! For all we've learned we still have no idea if how he went out let him move on." She exhales with finality.

"Big Brother" she sighs, "I sincerely hope this isn't goodbye, I still want to come out to join you guys at Jupiter sooner rather than later. I learned so much from you, and through you, about him, and I'm jealous. I know he's your step-dad, but to me he's the missing link. I've gotta know. I hope you never have to hear this."

"Big sis. I don't know what exactly to say, except, thanks. You've always been there for me. Pass on my love to the rug rats, and to uncle Lucas. I told you he was right for you!"

"Aunt Jo, without you I wouldn't know what strong meant. I hope you and Zane continue to do well."

"To all of you, uncle Doug, aunt Grace, uncle Henry, and to those I've forgotten, know that I send my deepest love and regrets that I could no longer be with you. I sincerely hope this works and none of you have to get this!"

"This is Doctor Jenna Carter, signing out."

She stood from the video recorder, ran through a quick edit with the software, and included all the data. Everything would be saved, assuming she didn't fundamentally alter reality with this stunt. If she did it right, any potential changes would be erased in the time loop, with only her signature unable to return to the present.

Setting the machine to send a copy of this latest log to the named parties, so that they'd have a farewell if she never returned, she went to the center of the lab and began syncing the baby bridge with the rest of her equipment.

Checked and rechecked, she was finally satisfied that all the numbers added up, that everything would work, and the next stop would be Eureka, 2008, 6:15 a.m. on the morning of the wedding of Allison Blake and Nathan Stark.

If it worked.

She shook her head. Of course it would work! Who was she kidding? She was Jenna Carter! Science and daring were her birthright!

The machines powered up, all indicators flicking to green, then initiated the download into the baby bridge, passing off it's power load and operations to the smaller device.

"Hi, Dad." she whispered.

She pushed the button.

* * *

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Eureka, it's characters, or its concepts, I'm just playing for fun and an educational experience._

_**Author's Note:** This story's setting is all contained within the text, but for summation sake, it's set after Jenna Stark has grown up. Sometime in her past Jack and Allison married, and Jack adopted Jenna into the Carter clan. Kevin chose to retain his mother's maiden name, Blake._

_I do not know how much more there is to this, I had what one of my friends calls a "plot bunny" in the middle of the day and this refused to leave me alone. I was writing about Carter, Allison, and Jenna, and the little one just _demanded_ a voice. The continuation of the story will be an addendum to the episode 3x04 "I Do Over", but I believe I will finish up "Way of the Gun" first. It depends on how loudly Jenna demands to see Nathan._

_* Thank you fellow author AllyrienDM, brilliant name for this! Read her excellent story "Everything Is Illuminated"_

_**Thank you Jack McDevitt and your book "Time Travelers Never Die" for inspiration into how the baby bridge should look and just what it should be capable of. Sorry, but Eureka has better toys than qPods, though._

_Edited 1/8/11 to clean up some dates and a few words.  
_


	2. Where Am I?

**FATHERS**  
A Jenna Carter Story

**Chapter 2:**

_**A/N:** Spoiler Alert! I'm mucking about with episode 3x04, "I Do Over". Consider the episode as seen until that one jump where Jack comes back through with the cut on his face and that like about things "bleeding through". If, by some fluke of fate, you've not watched this episode, you should watch it first. After that, enjoy!_

* * *

_"Hi, Dad." she whispered._

_She pushed the button._

The world dematerialized around her. In an instant her lab, the wide spacious area that was so familiar and so cluttered with the physical evidence of her life and career, vanished.

There was an instant of the strangest sensation, as though she was in two spaces at once. The lab was there still, but there was also this curious sensation of light and sound, and in the midst of it all was this utterly unfamiliar golden energy...

She wished for the sparest of seconds that she had some way of measuring all of this!

"Jenna?" called a voice. It was warm, masculine, rich, and so familiar she could touch it, but the identification slipped away even as she named it.

The the golden energy was gone, the duality ended, and suddenly there was pain! A brief spike of the most intense pain she'd ever felt, as though every single part of her hurt for the briefest of instances!

And then it was gone.

And she was moving. There was a flash of bright light, and a loud sound, like the blare of a - what? - a car horn?

She stumbled across a hard surface, blinking in confusion. This wasn't right. Not right at all. She should have materialized in a secluded corner of Bohr Park, a recreational area on the shores of Lake Archimedes that she'd visited many times over the years with her family!

Everything snapped into focus at once as Jenna realized she was standing in the middle of a two lane country road, the one that should have bordered Bohr Park, staring down the way at an oncoming car that some part of her analytical mind instantly recognized.

And it was almost right on top of her!

In a panic, she attempted to dive to one side, back toward what bloody well _should_ have been Bohr Park! Where the hell? It was a bank of scrub and wild trees? Where was the park?

Unfortunately, her feet weren't set quite right and she wound up folding her left ankle as she moved, and felt intense pain one more time, but this time much more localized, and she collapsed.

'I'm dead!' she had time to think, 'All that, and I'm dead...'

* * *

Sheriff Jack Carter wasn't having a very good day. Not really at all. First, it was Allison Blake's wedding day- well- her second wedding day. Second, the wedding was to that pompous egomaniacal ass Nathan Stark and not him. 'See, Jack' he'd thought at one point before this horrible day began, 'This is where procrastination gets you!'

But of course, this being Eureka, that couldn't possibly be all that was wrong! Nope! On top of it all, he was doomed to re-live this day, over and over, and no one but him seemed to remember it! 'I don't think I can last one more round of the "I Do's"' he thought bitterly. Bad enough he had to walk her down the aisle, but to deliver her to him? God but that grated more and more. He'd thought it would be okay, but after the second time...

This was the fourth time through, and this hell day showed absolutely zero signs of improving! He didn't _feel_ like he'd been awake for 33 hours, but objectively he knew that he'd been aware for it all, and the hours were starting to run together.

Things had changed slightly every time, but right now he had to figure out what the hell was going on before it got worse! He probed at the cut once more, the injury received during the last time loop when some flying object had smacked him across the face. Dammit that hurt...

For a brief moment he glanced in his rear view mirror to see if it was bleeding again. The little liquid wound sealer in the smart house's first aid kit felt like using super glue on his face. It was just weird.

Satisfied, he began to return his attention to the road, one he'd driven so many times in the last few hours he was predicting the traffic, when suddenly and quite unexpectedly some idiot came lurching into the road from the scrub land bordering Lake Archimedes!

"What the hell?" he yelled, one hand slamming on the horn, his foot slamming on the brakes. The Jeep locked into a slide as he spun the wheel, and everything seemed to slow down as the adrenalin rush started. The pedestrian lurched, turned toward him, and blinked like a frozen deer in his headlights.

'Oh great, I'm going to kill her...' he thought as he tried keep from doing just that, letting go of the horn and wildly spinning the wheel to handle his over-correction.

She dropped as he neared, close enough that he just might have hit her, and he prayed for that brief second that he hadn't. He lost control of his police cruiser then, and the Jeep spun about, coming to a stop more than three quarters of the way around, and facing the other way, back toward his home.

There, lying in the middle of the road, was the weakly moving form of a collapsed woman dressed in casual clothes. As she moved her thick brown hair fell back from her face and Jack's heart stopped.

He hurriedly got out of the car, yelling her name in disbelief. "Allison! No!"

* * *

Jenna came to, staring up into the confused face of her dad, only it wasn't. For that moment it was the kind but stern man who'd been there that first time she'd taken a spill on a bicycle, kneeling over her, hand behind her head as the other cleared away stray locks of hair.

But instead of the words she expected, he said "Who _are_ you?"

The image cleared and she suddenly forgot the pain in her ankle.

No, oh no it _was_ her dad, Jack Carter! Oh, this was so bad! He was staring at her with the strangest look in his eyes, and she shied away from meeting them for a second, afraid despite all the logic in the world that he would recognize her.

And then it hit her. Of course! He wouldn't know. At this point her own mother didn't even know she was pregnant! She and her dad hadn't got together yet, and her father was still alive!

He spoke again, as though mesmerized, staring at her like he couldn't make out what he was seeing. "You look so much like her..."

Slowly, as she lay there, he reached out and brushed a hand across her cheek, his incisive blue eyes looking deep into hers. It was not a fatherly gesture. A part of her, deep down, reacted to his touch in a rather un-daughterly way. It was warm and strong, and compassionate, and-

'Jenna Carter, for the love all that's holy, he's your DAD!' her logical mind screamed!

She physically flinched from his touch, and squirmed to get away from him, exclaiming "No!" reflexively as she did. What the hell was she thinking? Was she actually getting attracted to him? Ugh! She scooted back using her hands and feet to propel her, but cried out in pain as her left ankle screamed at her that no, she should not be putting any pressure on it right now!

Confused, he half moved toward her, but also pulled away at her exclamation, brow furrowed as he bent his mind to solving the puzzle. She knew that look full well. She learned that look a long time ago when she realized that IQ meant diddly for smarts. It had been a humanizing lesson to learn just how smart he was, even though she could run math circles around him by age eight.

There too was the answer, 'That's it, Jenna, he's your dad, stop thinking about those eyes like deep pools of water you could get lost in and... STOP IT!' She shook her head, dispelling the mental images. 'Oedipus much, girl?'

"Are you all right?" he managed, standing now. "I didn't hit you, did I?" The concern in his voice was sincere, though now instead of touched by wonderment, it was more incisive.

"My ankle," she said, "I think I sprained it or broke it when I tried to get out of the way. I'm I guess, I'm sorry for jumping out in front of you, I don't know what I was thinking."

He nodded, and approached again, hands out in a soothing gesture. "Let me see if I can tell if it's broken, okay?" he asked.

She nodded and let him close again. He knelt and began gently massaging the ankle. She winced a time or two when the pressure became too intense, but otherwise his hands felt good.

'Jenna Carter, what the hell is wrong with your head?' she screamed at herself.

* * *

Jack leaned in as he massaged her ankle, feeling for broken bones. He didn't miss how she reacted. It confused him, but he didn't miss how she'd reacted to him touching her earlier too. It was the strangest damn thing!

She looked so much like Allison Blake it was scary, beyond belief scary when he'd thought it had been her lying there. She recognized him, of that there was absolutely no doubt, but when he looked into her eyes the strangest thing was that he felt like he recognized her too, and connected on some level that was so deep it was profound.

Who was she? Her facial structure was almost identical to Allison's, but her eyes he'd seen those eyes before, but he couldn't place them. He was sure a young woman like this (Could she be over 20?) he would remember, and of course feel like an old lech for thinking the thoughts he was thinking!

'Down, Jack,' he admonished himself, 'She can't be hardly two or three years older than Zoe! Dirty old man...'

She flinched a few times as he probed for breaks, and the expression on her face said she was fighting a similar battle. Nothing felt broken so far, but a spill like that could fracture the narrow bone in the lower leg as well.

He stood up a second later, pronouncing, "No breaks, but you've got a nasty sprain. You should see a doctor soonest, see what they can do for you."

The look of dread that came across her face when he said that stopped him from his first suggestion, but he filed it away for future reference, so he said instead, "I'm going to give you a lift into town, and drop you off at my office, I'll have a physician come in and take a look at you."

She nodded and he reached down to help her up. Together they got her stood up, and she rested her weight on him as they transitioned to the passenger side of the Jeep. In short order she was seated and buckled in, but he noticed her looking in confusion at the near bank of the lake many times.

He surveyed it himself, noting the scrub and brush. Joggers almost never came out here. That, combined with everything else that was going on today, plus the fact that of the loops this was the very first time he'd seen her, really set him on edge. 'Easy, Jack. You don't know she's involved... But damn if it isn't convenient.'

"So what were you doing out here?" he asked as he got in the driver's side.

She glanced at him and hurriedly looked away, weakly saying, "Oh, um. Jogging."

She seemed so unsure, it was almost like talking to Zoe when she knew she'd done something wrong and was afraid of getting caught...

"Out here?" he pressed as he turned the car over and got them moving again. "This is hardly the scenic end of the lake. The park won't start construction for another few months or so, they've had delays and snags getting final approval. But I suspect you knew that already, the announcement went out at the last virtual town hall and everything."

'Ah, gotcha.' he thought as he saw her consternation, and on top of that her reflexive grab at her pocket. She pulled out a Global Dynamics PDA, except it looked different from his. A little larger, but there were these fiddly bits attached to it. Hm. She hadn't seen the message _and_ she'd been expecting to find something here that wasn't.

Interesting.

* * *

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Eureka, it's characters, or its concepts, I'm just playing for fun and an educational experience._

_**Author's Note:** Second chapter of Fathers, I hope you all like it. As I warned above this is set in the middle of "I Do Over". I will be severely mucking about with the episode. Jenna's entrance to the episode changes many things, but will the effects be permanent? Maybe the life she knew was always affected by this? Only time will tell, I suppose._

_More to come! Please Read & Review and let me know what worked, what didn't, and if you have questions._

_On the technical side, whereas Way of the Gun is all first person, I wanted to engage this from a more traditional third person limited viewpoint. I am, however, going to mix internal monologue with soliloquy. _

_Bohr Park does not exist in the show, I made that with a search for famous scientists, and figured it should exist. Here's Wikipedia's initial entry on Mr. Bohr:_

"_Niels Henrik David Bohr... was a Danish physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in Copenhagen. He was part of a team of physicists working on the Manhattan Project. Bohr married Margrethe Nørlund in 1912, and one of their sons, Aage Bohr, grew up to be an important physicist who in 1975 also received the Nobel prize. Bohr has been described as one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century."_

_Thanks for reading._


	3. Hi, Dad

**FATHERS**  
A Jenna Carter Story

**Chapter 3:**

_**A/N:** Spoiler Alert! This story contains spoilers and basically destroys the continuity of episode 3x04, or "I Do Over"_

Sheriff Carter delivered Jenna to the his office on main street. She reflected how odd it felt to be in it, a place that was at once familiar to her and yet so strange. It was almost like being in a museum. Some of her earliest memories involved having to wait here while her mom or dad handled some crisis or other, especially when her elder brother Kevin hadn't been available to look after her.

Now, it looked like it had before the technology upgrade in the early '20s. Likewise, it was odd to notice personal affectations of her aunt Jo's in the office. She was so used to the android Andy being the deputy that the concept of another human working with her dad just seemed, well, weird. She partly wished she could have brought Andy back with her. They'd been friends for so long, but she couldn't risk anyone else for what was ultimately an extremely selfish goal.

"Here you go" announced the young doppelganger of her dad as he deposited her in the chair in front of his desk. Her ankle was really hurting. She took a silent moment to berate herself yet again for not thoroughly checking the permit dates on Bohr Park. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid. What else have you missed, girl?' she thought.

"Thanks" she said aloud, sinking gratefully into the seat. She took a moment to look down and examine the swelling. Wonderful. So much for wearing period clothes. If she'd dressed in her usual All Purpose Adventure gear the cuff of the shoes would have inflated to spare her the injury in the first place, not to mention splint it for her afterwards...

He nodded, eying her speculatively, then said, "I'm going to talk to one of the doctors and have her come down to check you out. You can stay here, for the time if you like."

She nodded to him, schooled herself before speaking and said "Sure thing, Sheriff Carter." It wouldn't do any good for her to slip and call him 'Dad'. Yikes.

"Oh, I don't think I got your name, Miss..." he led, fishing for the answer.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" she said, proffering her hand while smiling and saying "Jennifer White, pleased to meet you!" and hoping fervently that he wouldn't check too deeply on the identity. But, this was her dad, Jack Carter. Of course he'd dig. Still, the name White was fairly popular in this time frame, 0.279% frequency, if she remembered right.

He nodded genially, but she could see the glint in his eye that she recognized. The one that meant he'd found something interesting and was going to start pulling threads to see what unraveled. "Okay, Jennifer, can I ask who's party your with in town? I know we don't have any Whites, believe it or not, so you must be a guest to the wedding. Am I right?"

How to save this, how to save this? She sucked at lying to him! "Oh, I'm with Nathan Stark's party, actually. Yeah, I've been really looking forward to seeing the wedding, once I found out about it and all." She finished with a bright smile, while her insides cringed at how awful that sounded.

He sighed tiredly and shook his head. She recognized the gesture and closed her eyes, deflating on the chair. That was his "I just found a lie" face. Why the hell had she had to run into _him _first? She hadn't expected to get off without revealing her identity, but she had been hoping to only face her biological father with such, not her dad...

"Jennifer," he began, somewhat tiredly, "Today's been a hell day, or I should say several hell days, all tied up in one big jumble, and there's a whole bunch of craziness going down, but there's one thing I know. The guest lists had to be prepared ahead of time and run through my office to see who had clearance for what and who would have to sign NDAs." He rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand, another familiar gesture, and sighed.

He thought for a minute and continued, saying, "You see, I've seen pictures of everyone from out of town who's coming to the wedding, and you're not on any of them. Believe me I'd know. Your resemblance to the bride is amazing, and on top of that there's no White's on the list."

"So, lets have us a change of venue while we figure this one out, huh?" he finished, reached firmly and clasped her right arm, gripping the wrist. "You're under arrest, for trespassing on U.S. Government property and-"

She tried to yank her hand free, shouting, "What? No! You can't-"

"I can and I will, don't make it resisting arrest." he said grimly. "Come on, up you go." He pulled her up and helped her walk on the way over to the cell. This was _so_ not how it was supposed to go!

After he deposited her on the bunk in the cell and locked it up, he leaned against the bars. "Now, Jennifer. You don't look like much of a threat. In fact you look sort of lost, and call me crazy but I'm starting to consider that you might be involved in what's been making my day, or maybe days, or whatever, go straight to Hell." He paused, then continued, "So tell me all you know about time loops."

'Oh, crap!' she thought, 'Can this get any worse? Think, Jenna! You're the smartest person you know!'

He nodded as though he'd heard her mental exclamation, and she understood that he'd pulled it from her body language.

Okay, then, the best thing to do would be to get out of this situation, the sooner the better. If she distracted Jack Carter too much he'd never solve the time loop and that would be bad on an epic scale!

Kicking herself for her panic, realizing that it wasn't the smart way to proceed, and focusing instead on solving the problem of how to exit the situation helped her to deal with it better. She took a few deep breaths, then looked at him with renewed confidence, saying. "Time loops? You should know that's not possible."

In the meantime she went through a few quick thought routines to bring up the virtual overlay that would let her interface both with her baby bridge and if she was lucky the local wireless networks.

While he formulated how to respond to that she began the process of hacking Global Dynamics. A part of her was gleeful to have this opportunity. 'Hah!' she thought, 'In this day and age their security is laughable!'

Jack chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, I got your before. You're playing it calm right now, but you know something."

In her vision, dozens of icons sprang up into her usual coding interface. She was practiced enough that she didn't actually shift her eyes to pick icons and the like, she didn't need to do that anymore. Instead, a moment's focus on an area in her vision told her interface that she wished to run that program.

The technology was an outgrowth of something that had happened to her mom years ago/from now, but in the decades since the horrible events that had spawned the initial development, the scientists at Global had managed to put together a far safer interface that was becoming the new way to compute.

"And lets suppose for a second that I do, what then?" she asked. It was generally new to her to be confrontational with him, but the earlier confusion she'd suffered when he'd brushed her face was helping her separate this man from the older and wiser Jack Carter that she knew as "Dad". Now that she had in mind the seriousness of the situation, her nerves were rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

"Then I'd hope you would help me!" he exclaimed. The look on his face expressed confusion and a little bit of hurt. That must be because of her similarity to her mom. He was expecting her to act like he thought Allison Blake would.

There were more important things than that, though, so as hard as it was she had to hurt him a little. "I'm sorry, Sheriff. I can't help you with your problems today. Yes, I know about them, yes I have an idea on how to solve them, but I can't get directly involved."

He blinked at her honest statement, confused, she guessed, because he sensed her honesty, even though it seemed she must be lying.

Then he nodded, and stared hard into her eyes. "You're her daughter! Allison Blake- I mean Stark and Nathan Stark!"

She flinched. Dammit, she was always underestimating how quick he was to pick up things!

"I uh..." Oh hell, it couldn't hurt any worse! "Yes, Sheriff. I'm the daughter of Allison and Nathan Stark." That wasn't a lie, not in the least, but it gave away nothing of her father's future.

"What the hell? Are _you_ causing this?" he asked hotly. "Of all the... the things you people do in this town!" He threw up his hands and grunted in exasperation, falling back into his chair and shaking his head.

Another gateway fell down, this was almost easier than she thought it was going to be!

Early experiments in DNI (or Direct Neural Interface) had proved that people, even very smart people, had difficulty thinking in sufficiently rigorous patterns to allow machine interface. Instead a dedicated virtual intelligence was required to parse commands, and in turn it created a virtual landscape thanks to implants in the user's retina.

To put it simply, her world was unlike anyone else's in this time. If she chose, she could see the data she was mentally manipulating in any of a hundred thousand different ways. For something as simple as hacking Global Dynamics, she was running a pared down interface that would let her put more of her attention on conversing with her almost-dad.

"I'm sorry, Sheriff." she said. "I'm not the cause of your problem. For that, if I have my time line right, you should follow up on the person you were going to see when I mistakenly fell out in front of you."

"Leo Weinbrenner? He's responsible?" he asked, confusion and incredulity in his voice. "He's the maintenance guy! I was supposed to sack him this morning... well I _am_ supposed to redact him this morning, except I did it two mornings ago and-"

"Not maintenance," she interrupted, "_Time_ Maintenance!"

There! The last gateway was down and she was in, full access to everything shy of Section 5! That would probably take another ten minutes to get... but she didn't need it. Personnel files indicated her next destination, and she computed her coordinates.

He just stared at her for five solid seconds. "Time... Maintenance? You mean like keeping _time_ flowing?"

"No!" she exclaimed, waving her hands, "No, no... more like keeping Global in sync with... well in sync with time, I guess. TM ensures that researches can know what the exact time is when it's especially critical for their experiments, which aren't always time travel! You know that's illegal, by the way?"

"Then why the hell are you doing it?" he asked, looking at accusingly. "What, your dad get it in his skull he needs to alter the past or something today?"

She couldn't help her reaction to those words. They hurt more than she ever thought words should have. She'd become so invested in finally meeting her biological father that to have her dad, who should understand this, no matter how much her logical mind knew he couldn't, disparage her motives in that fashion was crushing. She choked back a sob and folded her face into her hands, trying to fight back the tears.

He sighed as he looked on. "Look, Jennifer, I'm sorry. But if it's something some future Nathan is doing, then I-"

"No!" she choked out, looking at him with tear-stained eyed. "I wish I could tell you." she said between sniffs. "But if I do, it could change everything! You're the ONE person I can't say anything to!"

"Jennifer, look, I really could use the help-"

She interrupted him. "Sorry, Sheriff, you won't be getting it from me."

Using her VRI she activated the newly powered-up baby bridge...

And vanished!

* * *

Nathan Stark _had_ been having a good day. After all, it was his wedding day. That it was the second wedding to the same woman he'd divorced a year-and-a-half ago didn't matter, and it had shook him to realize just how much he still loved her. All that time spent immersed in the science, in the development, in everything. It had taken nearly loosing Allison for real to make him realize that he'd been trying to bury the pain of loosing her in his work.

The dream this morning had been one thing. He'd stood in an empty space surrounded by golden light while a painfully familiar voice asked, "Nathan, are you ready?"

Ready? Ready for what? Of course he was ready, this was his wedding day! He was certain of this commitment like no other before.

But while he felt contentment and excitement, both at finally being able to commit to Alli and at being ready to do it right this time, that dream picked at his confidence insidiously!

He had thought that maybe a workout would drive away the sensation, but an hour so far on the machinery hadn't managed to help. Not to mention his assistant, Douglas Fargo had been trying to call him for the last thirty minutes, anxious to the point of uselessness about the delivery and installation of the new clock.

He regretted that the new clock would mean that Eva Thorne would be dismissing Leo Weinbrenner. The man was a genius in his field, but it was a field that didn't produce meaningful gains. Oh, sure, Henry disagreed mightily, but Henry didn't have to balance the budget sheets. Great, quarterlies would be due in a few days too...

Thus preoccupied with these thoughts while heading to the bathroom, Nathan Stark was caught completely off guard at the sudden flash of sparkle of white/gold light in front of him, followed by a bone jarring impact as a lithe young woman appeared out of nowhere, directly in front of him, and crashed right into him!

They went down in a jumble of arms and legs, and she cried out lightly as they landed. He found himself lying in the midst of his lushly carpeted hallway, looking up into the light brown skin and blazing blue eyes of a woman that looked so much like Alli it was shocking.

As he gazed into her eyes, a realization began to dawn on him. Before he could really formulate the right words, and honestly a part of him recognized how big of a shock this was because of that, the girl spoke.

She looked down on him with a sheepish grin and her eyes alight with excitement, and said two words that utterly unbalanced his entire world.

"Hi, Dad."

* * *

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Eureka, it's characters, or its concepts, I'm just playing for fun and an educational experience._

_**Author's Notes: **Chapter Three, done. A short continuity note, this proceeds chronologically from my story "Way of the Gun", but reading that is not required for this. As such Jenna's revelation of how her virtual technology comes to be is tied to that story and might spoil the ending somewhat._

_The idea of directly interfacing with a computer isn't new by any stretch. However, if you read any of Peter F. Hamilton's stuff you might recognize the inspiration for my interface. I am, however, avoiding most of his stuff. If you want some really interesting societal commentary stuff mixed with some good old fashioned space opera, it's hard to beat "Pandora's Star."_

_Jenna's facility with the computers of the day is due in part to the fact that they are twenty plus years old to her. Such ancient machines pose no significant obstacle to a modern hacker of her day. However, that doesn't mean nobody noticed!_

_I hope you continue to enjoy this. More to follow._


	4. Balancing Acts

**FATHERS**  
A Jenna Carter Story

**Chapter 4: Balancing Acts  
**

_**A/N: **Spoiler Alert! This story contains spoilers and basically destroys the continuity of episode 3x04 "I Do Over"_

Jack Carter stared at the empty space where Jennifer Stark had been sitting, dumbfounded. It wasn't that he was unused to the weirdness that seemed endemic to Eureka, it was just this was the very first time a suspect had literally vanished from his sight.

"Holy crap..." he muttered.

His first thought went back to that fiasco a few months back with ex-spook Frank Phillips and his accidental invisibility bit. "Not again!" he lamented. "Look, Miss Stark, invisibility isn't going to get you out of the cell!"

No one answered him.

"Jennifer Stark! I know you can hear me, just..." he realized then that the cell's cot mattress had stirred when she vanished, and it no longer was compressed under the weight of the person that was presumably still sitting there. On top of that he couldn't hear anyone else breathing or stirring in the room. It was a quiet room, and people, plain and simple, make noise. They shift from foot to foot, breath too loudly when they're trying to be quiet. Invisible people have to get used to it, especially not seeing themselves in their peripheral vision. He knew, he'd been one for a while.

"Oh crap..." he sighed. He opened the door and stepped inside, shutting it rapidly, then proceeded to feel like a moron as he did one half of a Marco Polo game, sans shouting. Oh, did _that_ bring back some memories!

Shortly, he determined that in fact there was nobody in the cell with him. At all. "How the hell did she manage that?" he cried, "Just... vanished! You can't do that!"

Jack looked around in confusion, trying for the life of him to figure out what to do next. Who could he call? Jo wouldn't believe him, she hadn't the last two jumps, his sister had given him that stupid advice to kiss Allison... well maybe not so stupid, but definitely not welcome. Still...

While he'd definitely caught her in a few lies, he couldn't shake the sensation that grilling Jennifer Stark was almost identical to doing the same with Zoe, the girl reacted like she _expected_ him to find the holes in her lies, but was determined to try it anyway. That and she sucked at lying. No, she _really_ sucked at lying.

That said, it stood to reason she was telling the truth on her claims at the end. Why would _he_ be the critical one to not know the future?

"Because, Jack" he said out loud, "You're the one repeating the time loops! That means in her future you solved the problem, and if she meddles-" Something niggled at the back of his mind, and for the briefest of moments he had an image of himself kissing Allison, but not like he'd tried on the second or third loop. No, this was a familiar kiss, one he'd bestowed and received hundreds of times, and it felt so right, and... was she pregnant?

"What the hell?" he wondered aloud as the image faded into obscurity once more. He shook his head to try and clear it. Were memories coming through now too?

'So, then, assume for now that she's right.' he thought. She was Allison's kid too, that meant she couldn't be a completely amoral monster. She probably was telling the truth to some degree when it came to what he should or shouldn't do. So, time to track down Leo Weinbrenner and see what his part of the story was before 6:00 PM. He touched the cut on his face again and winced, even though it didn't hurt. If injuries were coming through, what next? Objects? People? How long before whole scale events started to just overlap each other? When the next loop happened would he even be the same person?

* * *

Allison Blake was trying her damnedest to have a good day, and failing, spectacularly. It was her wedding day after all! Some part of her opined 'Third time's a charm.'

If that were true, though, then why in the name of all that was holy did that bitch, Eva Thorne, have to call her in? They'd picked Saturday because all the quarterly work would be over! 'I should have invited her to the wedding...' she thought morosely.

Dressed in her usual formal business wear she cut a striking figure as she moved across the rotunda toward her office, where, presumably, the Fixer awaited, though she hardly noticed if anyone was paying too much attention. The list of things that could rouse Eva Thorne's ire was lengthy and detailed, perhaps worthy of a doctoral thesis on social norms and mores and... and there she was, coming toward Allison at a brisk pace.

Thorne wore one of her gray power suits, and an expression that said she was ready to bite the heads off of nails. Allison reflected very briefly that a skirt would take some of the woman's frosty facade off. Her choice of clothing said a lot more of "Fear me!" and a lot less of "Respect me!".

Of course, Allison reflected, it didn't hurt that when she wore a skirt it gave her the occasional chance to appreciate Nathan's admiring gazes. If she was honest with herself she didn't mind Jack staring quite so much either, though the thought of his committed friendship was just as warming if in an entirely different way. He thought she was making a mistake, and part of her wondered if it was possible. She and Jack might have had a future, but she and Nathan had a past, and he _had_ changed. All for the better, too.

God, last night...

"Director Blake!" the Fixer said assertively, and with a significant amount of heat too.

'Fantastic' Allison thought as she put a diplomatic smile on her face, the last warm sensations from her night with Nathan whisked away by the cold splash of Thorne's ice cold ire. "Ms. Thorne, what can I-"

"With me, now." Thorne almost barked. The expression on her face was just shy of livid. Allison turned to look as she noted heavy boot treads ascending the stairs, and found a Response Team squad coming toward her and Thorne. Thorne swept by and hustled down the stairs, not even sparing Allison a glance as she swept by. Their leader, Sergeant Graves, saluted Thorne smartly without sparing Allison a glance, though she would nominally be the boss.

A flare of anger shot through Allison and she moved purposefully after Eva Thorne. Dammit _she_ was Director of Operations, not Eva Thorne! And yet the other woman had managed to finagle command of the security staff, traditionally the Director's purview, out from underneath her! The position of Director of Operations felt more and more like an appeasement title every day, that she might not be called "Lackey".

"Thorne, stop!" she commanded, halting her march just behind the intent looking crew as they were preparing to enter the elevator. "What the hell is going on?" she demanded, letting the full measure of her authority come out. Two could play this game, and that woman, who may damned well be one of the best business assassins in the country, was not Allison Blake!

Eva Thorne froze, mouth half-open to issue commands. Her jaw snapped shut and the turned to face Allison, a single ginger eyebrow raised, her posture commanding, forceful, direct. Her expression conveying mild surprise, but also a touch of outrage.

'Fine, lets do this.' she thought. Allison replied in kind. On her the gestures were different, but conveyed much the same message. She gave a brief twist of her head, placed a hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes, her own defiance plain to see._  
_

No words were exchanged, but the four-man team of hard cases backed out of the way, as if not wanting to be caught in between the two of them. Up until now Allison had been trying to play nice with Thorne, but the woman seemed to be making it her mission to block Allison at every step, and worse yet to do so with a smile while issuing sweet, utterly false, saccharine platitudes. She'd fought back, but never overtly, not until now.

When Allison locked eyes with Thorne there was a momentary connection, and she received what amounted to a jolt. The sheer weight of experience behind Thorne's eyes bespoke a very old soul, one of intense personal fortitude, iron will, and possessed of the absolute determination to have her way. Thorne's green eyes seemed to deepen into a lustrous jade as her anger flared.

Allison's first instinct was to back down, and in that moment she almost did, but her own soul responded to the challenge. Who was she to bow and scrape before this woman? The experiences and setbacks she'd suffered over the years had not broken her, and neither would this woman! No! She would _not_ back down like a whipped dog!

The message was delivered, the elevator's arrival chimed at them as the doors opened. Eva softened her gaze without ceding the territory, shifting the conflict from directly opposing wills to polite knife fighting quarter, and said sweetly, "Shall we, Director Blake?" while gesturing toward the car.

Allison nodded, accepting the gesture for what it was without giving any ground, and entered the elevator followed by the Response Team and Ms. Thorne. Sergeant Graves nodded uncomfortably to the two women and hit the button to send the elevator to Global's parking garage.

"There's been an incident" Thorne offered to the silent car on the way up. "Shortly after I called you in we were hacked."

Allison took a moment to consider that and said "Well that has to be embarrassing, considering your recent security changes." She did not let her internal conflict show. Global was one of the most secure facilities on the planet. The idea they could be hacked was almost ludicrous. That she was out of the loop on the security breach bothered her more. A breach as serious as Thorne thought this was, judging by her reaction, should have caused Allison's phone to be ringing off the hook.

"_My_ changes?" asked Thorne, sharply.

"Yes, your changes, though right now I don't imagine that's the most important thing. Who did it and where are they?" Allison asked.

Though on the defensive, Thorne's tone remained assertive, even if tinged by just a hint of anger. "My changes were for the better, Doctor Blake, the enhanced security protocols are in place to prevent another incident, such as the one precipitated by Doctor Deacon."

"Please, Ms. Thorne, no time for that. What sort of breach are we facing?" Allison asked, noting for just a brief moment the shadow of uncertainty flickering behind Thorne's eyes. The woman may have been an annoying bitch, but she wasn't incompetent. If she was even a little scared...

"We don't know who, but they were fast. We do, however, have a physical location, right here in Eureka." Thorne said with a smug little grin.

"So this is what you called me in for?" Allison demanded.

"Oh no, I had some procedures I needed you to oversee. Quarterly balance sheets are due on Monday. Normally I'd say this couldn't wait but we have a rather momentous event here." Thorne's smile had turned saccharine again.

Allison stared at her hard as the elevator chimed, announcing the end of the ride. "The quarterly work is done, Eva. I signed off on it last night. If you're telling me there's more to do, then you should have seen to it before today."

"I'm sorry for the extra work, Allison, but I'm sure you can handle it. Here." She handed over a handful of documents, each with a cover form 395-T2C and an employee, or Allison supposed, now former employee's name neatly typed in. The group moved slowly out of the elevator to clear it for other use. A pair of large black SUVs had been parked near the elevator terminal, each with a driver. The second car held another four-man team. The driver of the first, obviously for the VIPs, was stationed by the vehicle's rear door standing at parade rest but snapping to attention as soon as they exited.

"A dozen layoffs? Today? This rush seems out of character for the great and terrible Fixer, Ms. Thorne." Allison stated coolly, glancing up from the last form to favor the other woman with a wintry smile.

Thorne returned the smile in equal intensity and sincerity "What needs, must, Allison. I have the utmost faith in you, of course. I'm truly sorry for the bother, and I hope it won't take too long. We wouldn't want you to be late for your beautiful wedding."

"No, of course not." agreed Allison in a mostly genial tone, her eyes conveying the requisite _'bitch!'_ "Care to tell me where this mysterious hacker and nefarious mastermind is hiding at?"

"I failed to mention that?" Thorne asked, so sweet it'd she nearly gave one of Sergeant Graves' men a cavity. "How inconsiderate of me. Our last recorded location is the Sh-"

"Excuse me, ma'am" said Sergeant Graves, the big man was holding a hand up to his ear, listening to the radio ear piece. "Tracking just confirmed a position shift. The target is in a new location."

Thorne immediately ditched her insultingly sweet voice and faced the sergeant directly, that alien commanding presence back in full force. The ice in her voice was enough to freeze the man's bones as she said, "And they are just _now_ informing us that the target has been on the move?"

"Beg pardon, ma'am!" he snapped while saluting sharply. "The control center reports the movement was instantaneous, ma'am. They thought it was a fluke reading."

Thorne sighed the sigh that self-appointed leaders usually do when faced with incompetence. "And? The new location?" she demanded.

"Doctor Stark's home, ma'am" clipped Graves.

The blood in Allison's body turned cold. "Lets, go, Sergeant Graves!" Allison snapped, moving toward the cars. Thorne stared at her, obviously shocked. Reacting to the implicit order in Allison's voice and presence, the security team hustled after their nominal boss.

"But-"

"Like hell I'm doing redactions when you're sending armed men to my fiance's house! Do you even have law enforcement experience?" Allison snapped, interrupting the Fixer before she could even begin her protest. The red-haired woman blinked, taken aback by the fury and fire in Allison's eyes and the sudden force of her will. "And it is in the town. You _have_ called the sheriff in on this, yes?"

She got in while Thorne stammered for a moment. Then looked up at the woman with an impatient glance, willing her butterflies to go away, the thought that someone could be threatening Nathan at right this moment was turning her insides to Jello, but she refused to let it show.

"Coming, Eva?" Allison asked sweetly.

* * *

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Eureka, it's characters, or its concepts, I'm just playing for fun and an educational experience._

_**Author's Notes: **Sorry for the delay in updates, I'd love to say it's been a crazy week, but mostly it's just been more of the same, I just couldn't get this scene to come out right._

_My goal here was to display Allison Blake and her strength and determination. I hope I pulled it off well in the final draft, in my first two it just drug horribly and Thorne walked all over her... NOT what I wanted, that happens enough in the show. I realize that Allison couldn't smack Thorne down because her superiors wouldn't have it, and she was on tenuous ground anyhow, but still, it irritated the hell out of me to watch her kowtow._

_Yes, that is the same Sergeant Graves who meets his untimely end in my other story, "Way of the Gun". He wasn't always a bad guy.  
_

_As always, please review and let me know what you thought. I subsist on these little nuggets of commentary. Feed me, Seymour!_


	5. Revelations

**FATHERS**  
A Jenna Carter Story

**Chapter 5: Revelations**

_**A/N:** Spoiler Alert! This story plays havoc with and pretty much destroys the continuity of episode 3x04, "I Do Over"_

Nathan Stark pulled himself out from beneath the young woman. She realized his intent almost instantly and half sat up in a kneeling position, though she winced as she did so. He was overcome for a moment by just how much she looked like Allie! Her skin was a little lighter, her nose a little sharper, but the eyes! They were _his_ eyes!

And those words, in a breathless and excited nervousness that was so like Allie's, "Hi, Dad." she'd said.

So many questions raced through his mind. He tried each one of them, one after the other, framing each one into sequence so that he could reestablish order in his mind. It was not a sensation he relished. He believed in order, control, rationality. Everything, absolutely everything, was explainable, if only they could understand it or have the words to describe it.

To name a thing was to control a thing.

So, when the first part of him said that time travel was impossible, another part replied that of course it was, everything was possible. Time was a simple construct, nothing more. It was malleable, hence it could be manipulated. A sufficiently advanced being ought to be able to exist free of the constraints of time. A lesser being, such as a human, might be able to eventually control the flow of it, though he had never expected such a thing to happen in his lifetime.

He realized he'd been in a reverie when her expression changed from hopeful and youthful optimism to a shuttered disappointment. Her head and shoulders drooped, her eyes were cast down, and she slowly shook her head. "You don't believe I can exist," she said softly, the pain in her voice almost destroyed his heart.

He recognized the paternal urge surging through him as she looked on the verge of crying. He'd only felt it before for Kevin Blake, and though he truly did have Kevin's best interests at heart when Allison had confronted him, another part of him knew that she'd at least been partly right. That part of him that had to know was shouting loudly about everything he could learn from her. He crushed it mercilessly, just this once.

"You're here, therefore you exist." He said simply, and moved forward to embrace her. This elicited a happy cry as she flung her arms around him and buried her face in his chest, now crying freely. He held her for a long time while she wept. He tried to puzzle it out, and came up with a few conclusions.

First, she was the future. Until given proof to the contrary that would be his baseline theory. The question was, now that he was taking time travel as a given, was she from an alternate quantum reality, which he considered a definite possibility, or was she from the future that he would inhabit?

Second, she obviously knew him to some degree, but since she'd so quickly misread his emotions he quickly surmised that she was not familiar with them. That was troubling. It implied that he wasn't around in the whenever that she came from.

Third, he strongly suspected her age was early 20s, though with the leaps and advances Global had made in human tissue regeneration since Carl Carlson's elevation, it was distinctly possible that she was in fact rejuvenated and could be any age.

"I don't know what to say." She said softly, she was containing the crying now, and he was impressed with how rapidly she asserted control over her emotions. If his thoughts were correct, then she had amazing self-control for someone barely out of their teens. "I've wanted to... come here for so long."

He smiled as she pulled back, she really was amazing, and if she was his daughter... well the possibilities about the future that this event highlighted were astounding.

"Barring time travel, this is the first time we've met, isn't it?" He asked gently.

Tears immediately welled up in her eyes again, but she didn't let them fall. "Yes," was all she managed.

That was less than comforting. A future where he had a child of his blood who didn't know him. After all he knew of step-parenting Kevin, of the emotions he'd experienced sheltering and protecting, and then loosing Callister, the thought that he might not have ever known his own blood child made him sorrowful and angry at the same time.

His legs were starting to cramp up, what with it being just minutes after a heavy exercise, and she looked pained by her foot. "Come on, lets get up so that I can look at that foot or ankle, or whatever it is that's hurting you."

She nodded mutely, and took his hand and support as he lifted her from the ground and led her into the spacious kitchen. The room was well lit, with an arched ceiling that had a few skylights in it, a center island with a range and sink, marble tops. All of it was arranged like you'd find it in a cooking magazine or housewares ad. The only reason it didn't have dust was because he employed house cleaners. It had been weeks since he'd used it for it's intended purpose.

"What happened?" he asked as he got her sat into a chair.

"My ankle, I tripped after I came back and sprained it. At least that's what the sheriff said." she explained as he went to retrieve the first aid kit under the sink.

"And should I assume that you're also a fugitive?" He said, returning to her side and opening the kit, pulling out a sports bandage. "I can't see Carter letting you go easily."

She colored at the guess and said, quietly, "I sent him after what he needs to be doing, I hope, but I used some of my technology advantage to escape, he thinks that what he's experiencing today is my fault, and sort-of blames you. Sorry, Dad."

He was quiet as he finished wrapping the injured ankle. "Carter's ire doesn't scare me. It's our natural state of being," he said with some small amount of humor in his voice.

"There, that should help some." he said as he finished, and started efficiently putting things back together. Everything where it belonged, ordered and secure, then sat back on his heels and just gazed at her for a while. "What's your name?" he asked.

She blushed even deeper and smiled somewhat self-consciously. "Jenna" she said.

"After my mother?" he asked. She confirmed with a nod. "And Allison Blake is your mother, yet you risk the universe itself to come and see me. That means you're definitely my daughter." He smiled softly, then stood and stepped over to another chair at the dining room table.

"Tell me?" he asked. It felt odd on him, this sublime curiosity. His usual compelling and consuming need to know the answers seemed either muted or absent, and it unsettled him to a degree. He should be demanding, in control, managing...

"So, I made my final discoveries in late 2032." she began, and grinned a little bit at his expression of mild surprise. "Yes, I figured this all out, or at least put the final bits together. I've been working quietly at this kind of thing for years, and my overriding goal has been to see you."

"Me?" he asked. It added up, her expressions, her general demeanor, the raw giddiness in her eyes when she'd landed on him with that thoroughly unsettling 'Hi, Dad.' What wasn't adding up was her willingness to talk. It didn't matter what theory he thought was operable for her time travel to work, anything she said should change or alter her ability to get back. If he wound up living, surviving whatever it was that apparently killed him the future, then what? However, forearmed and forewarned, a part of him wanted to take whatever advantage he could to ensure his life, no matter the cost...

She nodded, breathed sharply for a second and looked to be fighting off tears. "For my entire life the only contact I've ever had with you is in the logic diamond necklace you gave Mom on her wedding day. Today, I guess."

She laughed with very little mirth at the skeptical expression on his face, and said words that struck to his core. "You open with 'I know what you're thinking' and are being as self-effacing but still cocky as she always said you were, and end with promises that you will never, ever leave her. Unfortunately for all of us, fate had other plans, and she never got that message until six weeks after you saved the world."

How could she know those words, the content? The diamond was coded to only respond to Allison Blake's DNA markers... No, not just her markers, it was only a portion of it that she could easily share with a female offspring through mitochondrial DNA chains...

She rattled off the diamond's serial number. Hard proof.

"I would have brought it with, but she still keeps it nearby and I could never take it without telling her" Jenna says softly.

Nathan stared out the window into his back yard, considering her words quietly. She had an anxious expression on her face, and he realized he must be in his closed problem solving mode. He tried to soften his expression for her and smile gently, to reassure her, but it didn't feel right.

"Why?" He asked. "What happens, and what is going on? And why risk it?"

She reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing hard. "Mom always said I inherited your drive, and my step dad says I'm a lot like you when I get a problem in my hands. Quite simply, I needed to know, and for you to know, somewhere in the vastness of time, that you'd mattered to someone and that someone wanted to meet her dad."

He grinned a ruefully, "Step dad? No, don't say it. I know already who it is. If you say it, it becomes real and I just can't handle that! I'm not the only risk taker she's liked." She returned the grin, and though there was a little hurt in it, there was also some of her mother in there, and the beautiful fusion of them both.

"Alright" he continued, "But I'm left still with why take the risk? There's something you mentioned about what... ah... _he_ is going through today, but you've still got me on that one."

She looked both excited and sick, eager to share but not relishing what she was going to say, perhaps. "There was an old movie filmed sometime in the 80's, and old flat-D for the time when theaters were still around, called 'Groundhog Day'. Ever watch it?"

Nathan laughed softly and derisively. "No, I can't say that's one of my normally watched movies. Why?"

"Because Eureka is in one of those time events right now." Jenna said flatly. He stared at her. She could have just said _"Oh, CERN just developed a black hole and in one hour it devours the world"_ and he'd have been less floored.

"No, not possible" he said quickly. "Time flows consistently. If it were to ever fold back on itself it would affect causality, it would-"

"Delete us all from the time-space continuum, yes, I know." She finished his sentence. "Trust me, Dad. I'm the time traveler. It's entirely possible, and yes, it's just as bad as your math says it is." She looked a little abashed and glanced away from him.

"How?" he asked calmly. Inside his mind was screaming possibilities.

Solemnly she said, "A single photon was accelerated beyond the speed of light, someone manipulated the output to control the duration of the loops."

Nathan stared out the window for a short time, trying to incorporate everything this young woman was saying.

"So, this event kills me." he half whispered. "And you judged it safe because you were able to find the time loop and jump into the middle of it, so whatever mistakes you make, or whatever you change, gets erased when time loops again."

She smiled, obviously fighting back a fresh wave of tears as she said, "And for the next several hours I get to meet and spend time with my Dad, and when it's over he forgets me entirely, and I go back to my world. The loop gets closed in one or two more jumps, and..." she tried to say more words after that but failed.

Nathan wasn't sure what he felt right then, as she pulled her hand back and rested her face in her palms, quietly crying. Reacting on an almost instinctive level he moved forward and embraced her, saying "Shh, it's okay," and "It'll be okay," and offering other comforting platitudes.

Presently Jenna pulled back, having mastered herself. He let her, resuming his seat. "I'm sorry," she said, "I shouldn't be reacting like this. I'm a scientist, dammit."

"One of my mottoes was always 'never let them see you sweat'." He offered. "It doesn't mean you have no emotions or don't care, you just never let your enemies know. Families are different. Mostly."

She nodded, apparently considering that. He was still fighting that inner voice that was demanding to get the answers so that he could solve this without dying. It truly was the last thing he wanted, but how? If he fundamentally altered things, what would that do to her?

All things being equal, this Jenna Stark had been formed in the absence of his presence. Her life experiences led to her drive, her desires, and her science. If he remained alive, would she? Could she?

Arguably she was here already, so the future didn't matter as her founding moment was arriving in this time frame, but if this really was a break in the space-time continuum he couldn't be sure that she would follow everyone else through the loop when time reset. Even if she did, what then? If he changed the future relative to her could she even return to it? A wormhole, the only thing he cold think of that would allow physical transference, would need to be present on both ends, and if in the future he created she never made the bridge, hence the other end of the wormhole, she could never step back through it.

"Jenna? You invented the theories, are we dealing with an alternate quantum reality or a fixed causality loop?" He asked, trying to keep his rising anxiety from coloring his voice. After years of practice it was relatively easy, but he was finding doing so in her presence harder than doing it in Allie's.

"Fixed time line, or perhaps mutable time line," she replied. "There have been far more time travel events than anyone I know wants to consider. I even have outlier events marking experiments as early as 1985. There's even enough evidence to support the concept that Wells's story may be more historical documentary than speculative fiction."

She pursed her lips as she thought for a second, then continued, her manner smooth and confident. If nothing else her absolute unflappability regarding the concepts sold him on the notion that she really was from the future, as if she hadn't hit him with quite enough yet.

Presently she continued, saying, "While we've certainly experimented on the concept of alternate realities, we've found much more evidence to support singular time lines. Uncle Henry's last theorems on the subject-"

"Wait" Nathan interrupted, slightly incredulous. "Uncle Henry? Henry Deacon?"

She smiled fondly. "Yup. He and Aunt Grace are still in Eureka in the 30's, and..." she trailed off when she saw his expression. "What?"

"Aunt Grace?" he asked. "Who's Grace?"

She blinked at him, obviously confused. "Grace, Dad. Doctor Grace Monroe? She's worked for you for three years now at least."

Now _that_ was disconcerting. "No, Jenna. I don't have any Grace Monroes working up at Global. I'm absolutely certain of that."

"What?" she asked, stress notes rising. "That's not possible, I... One second..." She looked past his shoulder, eyes twitching rapidly back and forth as though she were in REM sleep. The behavior was so odd that he was taken aback for a moment. What was she doing?

She gasped suddenly and rocked back in her chair, as though someone had punched her in the gut. "No..." she whispered.

Desperately she looked in his eyes, whispering "No, that's not possible!"

"Jenna!" he said sharply, "_What_ isn't possible?" He was starting to panic, but owing to his iron will, refused to let it show.

"The past I know... everything I know about history in town... It's wrong, Dad! It's all wrong!" Her panic was rising, she started looking around, as if to escape, and continued to talk at such a rate that he wasn't sure if she was aware that she was.

"Aunt Jo is still Sheriff Carter's deputy? You aren't the Director and... and Mom's the Director of Global? What the hell? No Deputy Andy, Idha Malavi is the head of Medical? No, no this is all wrong!"

Nathan reacted as soon as she stood in her confusion. Apparently forgetting her injured ankle she went to move forward, yelped in pain and started to fall. He was there, arresting the fall and holding her up. "Steady! Hold on, Jenna. We can sort this out, but you have to tell me what's going on!"

She held on to him as though she were afraid he'd vanish, clutching his arms with a manic strength that physically hurt. "Dad, you don't understand, I-" She froze, looking out the wide and bright front windows, plainly showing the front drive as two heavy duty black SUVs that all but screamed Big Brother came skidding to a halt and two of Global's expert Response Team squads poured out, assault rifles at the ready.

"No!" she whispered, "Oh God, the Wells Protocol! This can't be happening! Sorry, Dad! I've got to get out of here! They'll never believe anything I say!"

Nathan was, once more today, utterly shocked. In his entire life he'd never been on the receiving end of a squad of heavily armed men with a powerful intent to do some hurt barreling down on his front door. What the hell? Why? Why would they be coming and just how had they known she was here?

Pressed against him as she was, it was hard to miss the flinch in her body as she gasped in shock, looking about in dismay. "No... I... my bridge isn't working! I can't leave!"

Four men in the black uniforms of Global Dynamics Security were in front of the windows in a two-by-two covering formation, weapons trained through the insulated plate glass at the pair of them and two more men smashed the front door open and a wall of noise assaulted them as the security offers demanded their surrender...

* * *

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own Eureka, it's characters, or its concepts, I'm just playing for fun and an educational experience._

_**Author's Notes:** So to answer a few questions, yes what Carter was remembering in Chapter 4, that kiss with Allison is their final one from 1x12 "Once in a Lifetime". Due to events I have going on in the background, and due especially to Jenna's interference, many different things are starting to bleed through. It should be obvious here at the end of this chapter that the history that Jenna is expecting, the history changed by the five (six?) time travelers in 4x01 "Founder's Day" isn't the one that she's jumped into. I will reveal more about how Global could track her in later chapters._

_Before I get a bit of guff about the end of this, no she didn't try to physically change locations like she did earlier the same day, but all shall be explained._

_Please, read and review, give me your questions and thoughts. Any criticisms are welcome, and ultimately helpful.  
_


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